Thursday, March 03, 2016

Trump's Likeability

One overlooked factor in Trump's success, I think, is likeability. The authors of Freakanomics stressed the key importance of this trait in a candidate. According to the research they cited, likeability is more important than money, if you can believe it. Donald's cockiness, vulgarity, etc., might be off-putting to some, but I would argue that really competitive candidates have a quality that voters sense and like. It's intuitive. Bill Clinton obviously has it. Obama's is different: it's Black Cool. It's comes in different flavors. Even George W. Bush has something. People like gregariousness, confidence, naturalness--they like people people. Trump is clearly an alpha dog, and he likes people--at least his friends. Whatever the precise trait it, it is part of his success, and it will help him in the general. Ted Cruz sure as hell doesn't have it.

Profile

"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be." ~ Lord Kelvin